Large-scale tactical urbanism: the Denver bike share system

Abstract

How did one of the most historically automobile-dependent US cities end up with the first large-scale modern US bike-sharing system? The story reveals that it is less about transportation demand planning and engineering and more about the principles of what has been termed tactical urbanism. The tactical urbanism movement revolves around the idea that temporary interventions can help one understand what interventions might work in a particular context and lay the foundation for more permanent ones. That the first large-scale bike-sharing system in the US began as such an intervention is quite remarkable and illustrative of the potential of this strategy to build public aspiration and political will via temporary, short-term empirical success. Beginning with preparations for the 2008 Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Denver, Colorado, this paper details what went into creating the temporary Freewheel!n bike-share system and how that was able to be leveraged into a permanent bike-sharing system, Denver B-Cycle, two years later. Consistent with the characteristics of tactical urbanism, the partnerships formed with the temporary DNC implementation served as a catalyst. The paper then identifies lessons that other cities can learn and apply in similar large-scale tactical urbanism interventions.

Keywords:

• tactical urbanism
• bike share
• Denver
• active transportation

Notes

1. While SmartBike D.C. launched in August 2008, Denver B-Cycle was the first large-scale, modern bike-sharing system in the US. The DC system was limited by the fact that it only had eight stations along a linear route (which eventually became 10 stations before being entirely removed and later replaced with Capital Bikeshare).